LETTER TO CHINA, AN EMERGING GREAT POWER

(Please feel free to copy, edit if and as desired, and send to the Chinese leaders whose addresses are here)

Dear Mr. President/Premier/Minister,

China is on the cusp of becoming a great global power again.
But the definition of greatness has changed since the last time in
history China was great.
Military and economic power still counts, but to be truly respected as a great power
today, a country must also demonstrate humanitarian leadership.

United Nations Convention on Refugees Article 33: Prohibition of Expulsion or Return states:

"No Contracting State shall expel or return a refugee in any manner
whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be
threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion."

China not only signed this convention but also occupies a position within the UN
body that is supposed to
lead the other nations to respect it.

North Korean refugees who cross into China may do so for "economic reasons" as you claim, but once they hear the
gospel of Jesus Christ and become Christians in China,
you know that their "life or freedom" will be "threatened on
account of... religion" upon repatriation to North Korea. You also know that the "life"of the unborn babies carried by pregnant North Korean women will
not only be "threatened" but terminated upon repatriation.

You claim that you ask the North Korean regime to stop imprisoning and killing
repatriated Christians and babies. Until that regime
listens to you, your signature on the Convention compels you to not
repatriate them. And no Convention is needed to condemn the sexual enslavement
and trafficking of North Korean women and girls in China.

To demonstrate that China is a 'modern' nation and not an
accomplice to the North Korean regime's
crimes against humanity, please stop arresting and
repatriating North Korean refugees, and let the UN High Commission on Refugees
go to the border region so that
it can help and resettle the refugees in South Korea.

If you want China to be hailed as a 'great' nation, demonstrate greatness.
Magnanimously grant amnesty to the North Korean refugees already in China,
announce an assistance and resettlement program in cooperation with
UNHCR, and
severe punishments for anyone caught enslaving or trafficking women and girls.

The greatness of a country is measured by how it welcomes not the most privileged guests on its soil, but
the least privileged and the most vulnerable.